Yet another speed metal/thrash
feast from Roadrunner Records. Toxik are in the same league with bands like Agent Steel and Realm.
They somehow manage to be technical and pretty darn aggressive without losing
a good sense of good songwriting. While the music is straight forward thrash,
the band also has a flair for groove and memorable hooks and licks. The vocals
are a big selling point here. Mike Sanders' high pitched, falsetto vocals are
in the same league as Rob Halford and John Cyriis. Some of the highlights here are the extremely fast "Heart
Attack" and the awesome "Count Your Blessings", especially the amazing
intro - this is lead guitar that would impress any fan of shredding guitar antics.
"Pain and Misery" is an early precursor to the stop/start riff work
that Pantera became known for. Really
the whole disc is quite amazing. I wish bands were still putting out music of
this caliber.

"Think This" was the band's
sophomore follow-up to their critically acclaimed "World Circus." This disc
is pure, unadulterated speed metal complete with blazing solos, fast riffs,
plenty of riff and tempo changes within each song and high, intense, majestic
vocals. New vocalist Charlie Sabin, replacing vocalist Mike Sanders, also has
one of those high, clean styles that are straight out of the John Cyriis/Geoff
Tate school of heavy metal singing. The vocals together with the aggressive
thrash riffing is absolutely outstanding, and straddles and should also appeal
to power metal fans as well. The production here is quite good as well, although
the mastering on the CD is a bit low overall. I'd be willing to bet that the
vinyl version has a warmer sound. However, the guitars are crunchy, the recording
is crisp and the drums are pummeling, although not out in the front of the mix.
For some reason this type of ultra-technical speed metal took a major dive in
popularity to the more brutal styles of thrash metal and eventually death metal.
It's a shame because I personally think that this type of mixture of power metal
and thrash is the perfect blend. Bands like Toxik, Realm, Agent Steel and Powermad are among my favorites of the thrash metal genre. "Out of the Tiles" is a Led
Zeppelin cover.